Part 2 of the big Mega Man rundown includes the other five games. No mystery there. This is probably the craziest back end because Mega Man games start popping up on other consoles all over the place.
Mega Man 6 (released 1993)
I remember it because it was the game where Rush was dropped in favor of strange armor that Mega Man put on to fly around and break blocks to access alternate routes and pick up E Tanks hidden away. I was about halfway through the game before I was okay with it, but I prefer Rush to funky armor. I was too young to put together Flame Man's middle eastern reference. What with a robot wearing a turban controlling an oil field in all. Tomahawk Man was more my speed. Plant Man was universally hated for being a dumb design. But my favorite from 6 was Blizzard Man, only because when he enters the boss lair, it looks like he's doing a little dance to the boss music. Plus he's got skis and turns into a rolling ball. If I had to place him on the map, I'd say . . . Canada? Yeah. Canada. Heh.
Mega Man 7 (released 1995)
Mega Man's first game on the SNES turned out to be a pretty awkward thing. I bought it with my own hard earned money from doing chores around the house and took a long time to adjust to how big everything was on screen. Mega Man was a freaking giant compared to his sprite on the NES games. The Met enemies were freakish and sliding and jumping felt off. But after awhile it became easy enough and Mega Man 7 is a good enough game. The only thing I didn't really care for was how you only had access to four robot masters at a time. After you beat the first four, you did a weird half-time boss and then the other four came in. There are two parts of this game that drove me absolutely insane when I tried to beat it. Bass with his armor in Dr. Wily's castle and the lass boss. I thought I would never beat this game ever. It was insane to me that Wild Spring was the last boss' weakness because I really sucked at using it. However, Mega Man 7 has some of the most memorable music in the series. I love the robot master boss tune. It's my favorite boss fight music over all.
Mega Man 8 (released 1996)
This game also had some pretty terrible music with the exception of Astro Man's stage. Everything else is pretty forgettable. My favorite robot master in Mega Man 8 (because I forced myself to pick one) is Grenade Man. I like his design and the idea of a suicide robot built like a grenade . . . but he's really creepy. He's a masochist and loves to get hurt. And blown up. And shot. His voice samples don't help. But at least he looks cool. But yeah, Mega Man 8. Worst game in the series. I don't care about evil energy or Duo and it's a good thing they haven't shown up again. The less I see about this game, the better.
Mega Man 9 (released 2008)
I like that they made this game but I think they went a little too overboard with the difficulty. The hardest game from the NES series I can think of is Mega Man 2 and it's nowhere near as tough as this game. As a slap in the face, they offer Easy Mode as downloadable content. Bad form. Still, there is a lot of awesome in this game. The music especially. I love Galaxy Man's theme and he's a pretty cool robot master too. He transforms into a UFO and drops Black Holes as bombs. Pretty sweet. Where's that Killstreak reward for Modern Warfare 2? Deploy Black Hole. Awesome. This game also did the impossible by introducing Splash Woman, the one and only female robot master. If this game came out when I was seven it would have blown my mind. Technically, woman ends with "man" so it still works in the spirit of the series. But that's probably splitting hairs or getting into an unnecessary debate on Mega Man ethics. Oh you laugh. I assure you, those people are out there. It's still great that this game exists. Awesome.
Mega Man 10 (released 2010)
I really didn't expect Capcom to roll out Mega Man 10 as soon as they did. I'm surprised this game got made at all. Maybe it makes sense to round out the series and end on a solid number. This time they show mercy and tone down stupidly hard jumps and badly placed mini-bosses for more entertaining adventures. And if normal mode is still too tough, you don't have to buy easy mode to enjoy the game. At this point they've let loose and decided that any design is a good robot master design- Sheep Man included. This is one of my favorites. Probably just behind Mega Man 5. It doesn't really do anything new but the experience is fun. The robot masters all have great animations, and Nitro Man is cool on wheels. He can drive up the wall and deploy what looks like Metal Blades that roll all over the place. This game has a lot of great music and there aren't any lame cutscenes that leave a bad taste in your mouth like Mega Man 8. If you told me that I would still be playing Mega Man games in the year 2010, I wouldn't believe you.
After playing and beating Mega Man 10 I can say that I wouldn't be surprised if Mega Man 11 came out next year or two years from now. Once Capcom hits a stride with a series they will keep releasing games for it. Expect the Super Mega Man Collection (including games 1 to 10) sometime in the near future. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they kept going until they hit 20. In a few years, I might have to make another post adding on to the extra games they've released.
As long as they're fun, I'll play them.
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